There was a certain midwest engineering college that gave all the incoming freshman the following assignment:

Make a chemically powered model car

There were quite a few well meaning but mediocre students who settled for simple (safe) chemical reactions, such as combining vinegar and baking soda to make water and CO2. Some others were a little more adventurous.

One young student, not really knowing chemistry (but figuring he did), just walked down to the chemical storeroom and asked for "strong hydrochloric acid". The stockroom guy, apparently devoid of sense, looked around and found an ancient bottle of 8 molar HCL. Figuring that the kid knew what he was asking for, handed over the acid.

The wayward freshman proceeded with the bottle back to his dorm room to experiment. This is where things get a little fuzzy, but it suffices to say that in the course of said activity his bottle shattered. Three floors of the dorm were evacuated for several hours while the gasses vented. The wayward freshman was first hosed down by the school and then had to stand outside at some length with no pants on. It's rumored that when he returned to his room his keyboard had melted and fused onto his desk, and that all metal surfaces (including his roommates) had become severely rusted.

Following this incident the chemical stockroom implemented stricter controls over who was allowed access to ancient bottles of extremely strong acids.

At least it wasn't HF or some other solution. HCl will burn you pretty bad, but it's natural. You make it in your stomach. HF isn't natural and while it won't eat dead meat like in Breaking Bad, it will kill you. It's contact poison and can give you a heart attack, or just go to town inside your body and do all kinds of nasty.

There was a certain midwest engineering college that gave all the incoming freshman the following assignment:

Make a chemically powered model car

There were quite a few well meaning but mediocre students who settled for simple (safe) chemical reactions, such as combining vinegar and baking soda to make water and CO2. Some others were a little more adventurous.

One young student, not really knowing chemistry (but figuring he did), just walked down to the chemical storeroom and asked for "strong hydrochloric acid". The stockroom guy, apparently devoid of sense, looked around and found an ancient bottle of 8 molar HCL. Figuring that the kid knew what he was asking for, handed over the acid.

The wayward freshman proceeded with the bottle back to his dorm room to experiment. This is where things get a little fuzzy, but it suffices to say that in the course of said activity his bottle shattered. Three floors of the dorm were evacuated for several hours while the gasses vented. The wayward freshman was first hosed down by the school and then had to stand outside at some length with no pants on. It's rumored that when he returned to his room his keyboard had melted and fused onto his desk, and that all metal surfaces (including his roommates) had become severely rusted.

Following this incident the chemical stockroom implemented stricter controls over who was allowed access to ancient bottles of extremely strong acids.

In the Penn State dorm rules, there's one addendum that obviously has a backstory. Sadly, it predated the 2004 class sufficiently that the RA who showed me was unawares of the deets.

Anyway, the rule is the last rule on appropriate hallway use. It reads something like "No go-karts, rocket powered cars, or similar vehicles are permitted to be ridden in the hallways."

I spilled some HCl all over my arm in lab once. Freaked out for a sec, then just sat there and watched my wet arm do nothing. Rinsed it off after a minute or so then told the TA his HCl sucks and is ghey.

There was a certain midwest engineering college that gave all the incoming freshman the following assignment:

Make a chemically powered model car

There were quite a few well meaning but mediocre students who settled for simple (safe) chemical reactions, such as combining vinegar and baking soda to make water and CO2. Some others were a little more adventurous.

One young student, not really knowing chemistry (but figuring he did), just walked down to the chemical storeroom and asked for "strong hydrochloric acid". The stockroom guy, apparently devoid of sense, looked around and found an ancient bottle of 8 molar HCL. Figuring that the kid knew what he was asking for, handed over the acid.

The wayward freshman proceeded with the bottle back to his dorm room to experiment. This is where things get a little fuzzy, but it suffices to say that in the course of said activity his bottle shattered. Three floors of the dorm were evacuated for several hours while the gasses vented. The wayward freshman was first hosed down by the school and then had to stand outside at some length with no pants on. It's rumored that when he returned to his room his keyboard had melted and fused onto his desk, and that all metal surfaces (including his roommates) had become severely rusted.

Following this incident the chemical stockroom implemented stricter controls over who was allowed access to ancient bottles of extremely strong acids.

Similar thing happened at my campus. The doofus didn't realize the handle on the bucket was loose and swung it like a pail of water. A litre of 11 M HCl in a second floor lab. The entire wing was evacuated and all the tiling had to be replaced when it was melted into a puddle of cheap vinyl goo. One unfortunate girl inhaled a wiff in the panic and got a lung infection for three weeks from the damage.

The dumbasses in my class can't figure out why I keep reminding them to put on gloves before they handle the concentrated acid stock bottles. I don't care about them, I'd just rather not see someone's flesh get melted off in front of me.

Suckmaster Burstingfoam:I spilled some HCl all over my arm in lab once. Freaked out for a sec, then just sat there and watched my wet arm do nothing. Rinsed it off after a minute or so then told the TA his HCl sucks and is ghey.

doglover:At least it wasn't HF or some other solution. HCl will burn you pretty bad, but it's natural. You make it in your stomach. HF isn't natural and while it won't eat dead meat like in Breaking Bad, it will kill you. It's contact poison and can give you a heart attack, or just go to town inside your body and do all kinds of nasty.

/Oh, I'll just open this empty bottle by the waste bottles and use it as the new RCA-2 acid waste bottle. Surely, this has been rinsed, and SON OF A biatch THEY DIDN'T RINSE IT AND THE TINY BIT OF HCL LEFT ALL VAPORIZED DAMN THAT STINGS//I'm still an idiot for not opening that in the hood, but it was *empty*.

doglover:At least it wasn't HF or some other solution. HCl will burn you pretty bad, but it's natural. You make it in your stomach. HF isn't natural and while it won't eat dead meat like in Breaking Bad, it will kill you. It's contact poison and can give you a heart attack, or just go to town inside your body and do all kinds of nasty.

Came for that.

Safe handling procedures exist for a reason. Every rule exists because of some idiot.But it doesn't always take an idiot for a dangerous situation to occur.

The exact same thing happened to me many years ago when I worked in a university chem lab. I picked up a bottle of 12M HCl out of the fume hood to put it on the cart, and the bottom just fell right off. I sort of stood there in shock for a second and went for the emergency shower which was fortunately right next to me. I couldn't believe how much water came out of that thing. My boss figured out something was wrong as soon as she saw me walking down the hallway completely soaked.

The amazing thing was that none of my clothes were damaged, nor did I get any burns. There wasn't even significant vapor in that lab - the hoods sucked it all in and scrubbed it. I was very very lucky.

The dept. chair had all the lab section instructors go over how to treat the reagent bottles with respect to every class... we found a couple more with suspect cracks in the gen chem labs.

doglover:At least it wasn't HF or some other solution. HCl will burn you pretty bad, but it's natural. You make it in your stomach. HF isn't natural and while it won't eat dead meat like in Breaking Bad, it will kill you. It's contact poison and can give you a heart attack, or just go to town inside your body and do all kinds of nasty.

I initially read the headline as saying HF, and my heart sank. I would not wish HF exposure on the worst of my enemies.